As a full time yoga teacher, I teach a lot of students each week. When I say a lot, I mean that I teach over one hundred different students of all different levels every week. One of the things that I hear students say the most is, "I can't".

My reaction is usually, "You can't? But I haven't even seen you try! How do you know that you can't?"

Seriously. How do you know that you can't do something if you haven't tried? Perhaps the pose that you have deemed "impossible" is actually very possible for you, but you are simply afraid. Maybe in this moment you lack confidence which is what makes you proclaim, "I can't!". Maybe it has very little to do with your physical ability and has everything to do with your attitude.

Is it possible that confidence is what tends to hold you back? Perhaps it is a fear of failing. Disappointing yourself. Feeling embarrassed.

I don't know about you, but these are feelings that I am definitely familiar with.

Rather than asking yourself, "What's the worst thing that could happen?", why not ask yourself, "What's the best thing that could happen?"

I once heard someone say that sometimes the first step to success is failure, and I really think this saying is true. How can you expect to be good at something that you've never done before? Sure, sometimes our previous experiences in life have unknowingly prepared us for a new experience. For example, if two friends were to take a yoga class together for the first time, one is a dancer and the other is into crossfit, it's likely that the dancer would find the poses requiring flexibility (like a deep forward fold) to be pretty easy to access and the crossfit friend would find the poses requiring a lot of strength (like arm balances or inversions) to be pretty easy to access.

It's very possible, however, that the assumptions I just made would not be true at all. In fact, I know several people who do crossfit and are incredibly flexible. I also know dancers who are very strong and have a fearless inversion practice.

My point is: try anyway. Besides, what's the best thing that could happen?

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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine. We were born to manifest the light within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”